Abu Ja'far al-Mansur
Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abdullah ibn al-Abbas, second Abbasid caliph; in al-Baladhuri: the thousand dinars Abd al-Malik had added to the Cypriots' tribute ran until his caliphate, when he said 'we are worthier of being just to them, and did not profit by wronging them', restoring them to Mu'awiya's ancient treaty; he it was who granted his brother Sulayman ibn Ali Balis and its villages after the confiscation of Umayyad wealth.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 14 in the chain · 754–775 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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The Entry of Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil into al-Andalus
In year 138 Abd al-Rahman ibn Muawiya ibn Hisham the Umayyad entered al-Andalus and seized it; his days extended and al-Andalus remained in his descendants' hands past the year 400. A man of learning and justice whose mother was Berber, they said: 'The world is ruled by two sons of Berber women — al-Mansur and Abd al-Rahman ibn Muawiya.' By year 148 nothing lay outside al-Mansur's sway but al-Andalus, held by Abd al-Rahman, who did not take the title Commander of the Faithful but only amir — as did his sons.
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Uprising of Abd Allah ibn Ali (754)
Draft card for Uprising of Abd Allah ibn Ali (754); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Alid Revolt of 762
Draft card for the Alid Revolt of 762, Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya and his brother Ibrahim's rising against al-Mansur; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Melas River (759)
Draft card for Battle of Melas River (759); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Syca (771)
Draft card for Battle of Syca (771); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Beginning of the codification of knowledge
Per al-Dhahabi, in year 143 the scholars of Islam began in this age the codification of hadith, fiqh and tafsir: Ibn Jurayj compiled at Mecca, Malik the Muwatta at Medina, al-Awza'i in Syria, Ibn Abi Uruba, Hammad ibn Salama and others at Basra, Ma'mar in Yemen, Sufyan al-Thawri at Kufa; Ibn Ishaq compiled the Maghazi and Abu Hanifa the fiqh and ra'y, then shortly Hashim, al-Layth and Ibn Lahi'a, then Ibn al-Mubarak, Abu Yusuf and Ibn Wahb. Codification and chapter-ordering spread, and the books of Arabic, language, history and the days of men were written down; before this age the imams spoke from memory or transmitted from sound but unordered sheets.
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Deposition of Isa ibn Musa from the succession
In year 147 al-Mansur deposed his uncle Isa ibn Musa from the succession — al-Saffah had settled it on him after al-Mansur, and Isa was the very man who had fought the brothers Muhammad and Ibrahim for him and overcome them; al-Mansur requited him by deposing him under duress and settling the succession on his son al-Mahdi.
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The execution of Salih ibn Abd al-Quddus
Salih ibn Abd al-Quddus of Basra was denounced to al-Mahdi for zandaqa and the caliph meant to kill him; 'I repent to God,' he said, and recited: 'what foes inflict on a fool is less than the fool inflicts on himself — and the old man never leaves his ways until buried in the dust of his grave.' Released and nearly gone, he was called back: 'Did you not say the old man never leaves his ways?' 'Yes.' 'So you will not leave yours until you die' — and ordered his execution.
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Founding of al-Muhammadiyya at Rayy
Al-Mahdi came to Rayy in the caliphate of his father al-Mansur and built the city the people inhabit today, dug a moat around it, built a congregational mosque carried out by Ammar ibn Abi al-Khasib whose name was written on its wall, dated its building 158 AH, girded it with a suburb-wall of fired brick and named it al-Muhammadiyya — Rayy's people call the inner town al-Madina al-Dakhila and the walled suburb al-Madina al-Kharija; Hisn al-Zaynabi lay inside al-Muhammadiyya, al-Mahdi ordered its repair and lodged there overlooking mosque and governor's palace, and on his first arrival he had lodged at a village called al-Sirwan.
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The Building of al-Rafiqa
In al-Baladhuri: al-Rafiqa had no ancient trace — the commander of the faithful al-Mansur built it in year 155 on the model of his city at Baghdad and stationed a Khurasani army in it; works continued under al-Mahdi while heir apparent, then al-Rashid built its palaces, and between al-Raqqa and al-Rafiqa lay an open space of sown fields; when Ali ibn Sulayman ibn Ali came as governor of the Jazira he moved al-Raqqa's markets into that space — the city's great old market having been called Suq Hisham al-Atiq — and when al-Rashid later came to al-Raqqa he increased those markets, which have since been assessed with the crown lands; as for Rusafat Hisham, Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik founded it, having previously dwelt at al-Zaytuna, dug the al-Hani and al-Mari canals and laid out Wasit al-Raqqa in it; that estate was seized at the dynasty's opening and passed to Umm Ja'far Zubayda bint Ja'far ibn al-Mansur, who built in it the estate named for her and added to its splendour.
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Khuzayma ibn Khazim Institutes the Land Survey at Dabil and Nashwa
In al-Baladhuri: Armenia's Abbasid governors ran in succession — Uthman ibn Umada ibn Khurathim, then Rawh ibn Hatim al-Muhallabi, then Khuzayma ibn Khazim, then Yazid ibn Mazyad al-Shaybani, then Ubaydallah ibn al-Mahdi, then al-Fadl ibn Yahya, then Sa'id ibn Salm, then Muhammad ibn Yazid ibn Mazyad; Khuzayma was the sternest of them in office, and it was he who instituted the land-survey at Dabil and Nashwa, which had not existed before. The Armenian patrikioses ever stayed in their lands, each guarding his district: when a march-governor arrived they surrounded him — if they saw continence and sternness in him while he had force and equipment, they paid him the kharaj and yielded obedience, but otherwise despised him and made light of his command; and Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Mazyad governed them in al-Ma'mun's caliphate, accepting their gifts and mixing them with his own person — that deed corrupted them and emboldened them against al-Ma'mun's governors who came after.
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The Killing of Mansur ibn Jamwana
In al-Baladhuri from Abu Amr al-Bahili and others: Hisn Mansur is named for Mansur ibn Jamwana ibn al-Harith al-Amiri of Qays, who undertook its building and upkeep, being stationed there in Marwan's days with a dense Syrian and Jaziran host to repel the enemy; this Mansur was set over al-Ruha's people when they withheld in the dynasty's first days, whereupon al-Mansur besieged them — as al-Abbas's governor of the Jazira and Armenia — and when he took it Mansur fled, then was given aman and came out; when Abdallah ibn Ali deposed Abu Ja'far al-Mansur he made him chief of his police, and when Abdallah fled to Basra he went into hiding, was betrayed in year 141, brought before al-Mansur and killed at al-Raqqa as the caliph returned from Bayt al-Maqdis — others say he was amaned after Ibn Ali's flight, appeared, and was then found to have letters to the Romans betraying Islam, so when al-Mansur reached al-Raqqa from Bayt al-Maqdis in year 141 he sent for him and struck off his head there before departing for al-Hashimiyya at Kufa; al-Rashid had built and garrisoned Hisn Mansur in al-Mahdi's caliphate.
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al-Mansur Orders the Tall Qalansuwa Caps
In year 153 al-Mansur obliged his subjects to wear the tall qalansuwa, which they fashioned from reeds and paper and wore in black; Abu Dulama quipped: 'We hoped our imam would add more — and the chosen imam added to the qalansuwas; you see them on men's heads like Jews' money-boxes cloaked in burnooses'.
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The Martyrdom of Umar ibn Hafs and the Ruin of al-Abbasiyya
In al-Baladhuri: al-Mansur appointed Umar ibn Hafs ibn Uthman ibn Qubaysa ibn Abi Sufra al-Ataki — 'he who captured Hazarmard', whom al-Mansur admired, while elsewhere the text reads 'he appointed Umar ibn Hafs Hazarmard in his place' — he entered Ifriqiya, raided to the farthest Berber lands and built there a city he named al-Abbasiyya; then Abu Khatim al-Saddrati al-Ibadi of Sadrata's people, a mawla of Kinda, fought him and he was martyred with a group of his household, the frontier rebelled, and the city he built was demolished.
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Mount Lebanon revolts (752–59)
Draft card for the Mount Lebanon revolts of 752 and 759, the risings against Abbasid rule; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Armenia's Rising under al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba
In al-Baladhuri: Armenia's people rose in revolt in the governorship of al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba al-Ta'i — after the removal of Ibn Asid and Bakkar ibn Muslim al-Uqayli — their chief being Mushay'il the Armenian; al-Mansur sent him reinforcements under Amir ibn Isma'il, and al-Hasan met Mushay'il, who was killed, his hosts scattered, and matters settled for him — it is he after whom Nahr al-Hasan at al-Baylaqan, the garden called Bagh al-Hasan at Bardha'a, and the estates known as al-Hasaniyya were named.
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The uprising of Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya and his brother Ibrahim
In year 145 Muhammad and Ibrahim, sons of Abdallah ibn al-Hasan the Hasanid, rose; al-Mansur overcame and killed them with a great company of the Prophet's house. He was the first to sow strife between Abbasids and Alids — hitherto one party — and harmed scholars who joined or sanctioned the rising, killing and flogging: Abu Hanifa, Abd al-Hamid ibn Ja'far and Ibn Ajlan among them. Malik ibn Anas ruled the rising lawful: 'your bay'a was coerced, and there is no oath upon the coerced'.
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Al-Mansur's Rebuilding of Malatya
In al-Baladhuri: in year 139 al-Mansur wrote to Salih ibn Ali ordering Malatya rebuilt and fortified, then resolved to send Abd al-Wahhab ibn Ibrahim al-Imam as governor of the Jazira and its frontier — he set out in year 140 with al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba among the Khurasani armies, proclaiming a levy on the people of Syria and the Jazira until seventy thousand converged, and camped on Malatya having gathered labourers from every land; al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba would carry stone to hand the builder, and a camel of his went round feeding the people from his own purse with field-kitchens deployed — Abd al-Wahhab envied this and wrote to Abu Ja'far accusing him of out-feeding the state in a bid to prolong and corrupt the work by extravagance and vainglory, and of having callers summon people to his food; Abu Ja'far wrote back: 'O boy! Al-Hasan feeds from his own money, and you feed from mine — nothing comes of you but smallness of worth, littleness of ambition and foolishness of opinion,' and wrote to al-Hasan: feed, but keep no caller — so al-Hasan would say 'whoever reaches my awning first gets such-and-such'; the men worked hard and finished Malatya and its mosque in six months; for the garrison each 'arafa — ten to fifteen men — received two lower houses, two upper chambers and a stable; he built a muslaha thirty miles out and another on the river called Qubaqib that feeds the Euphrates; al-Mansur settled four thousand Jaziran fighters in Malatya, it being of their frontier, with ten dinars added to every man's pay and a hundred-dinar allowance besides the camel the tribes engaged between them; he deposited its armoury, granted the soldiers farms and built the fortress of Qaludhiya — and Constantine the tyrant came on with over a hundred thousand as far as Jayhan, heard of the Arabs' numbers and held back.
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Siege of Carmona
Draft card for the Siege of Carmona in 763, Abd al-Rahman I's defeat of al-Ala ibn Mughith's Abbasid-backed revolt; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Kamacha
Draft card for the Siege of Kamacha in 766, the Abbasid assault on the Byzantine fortress; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Revolt of Sunbadh the Magian
The seventy-day rising of Sunbadh the Magian — first of the 'Mubayyida' movements that gathered under Abu Muslim's name, crushed between Hamadhan and Rayy, 137 AH.
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Sunpadh Rebellion (755)
Draft card for the Sunpadh Rebellion of 755, the rising of Abu Muslim's followers against the Abbasids; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Revolt of Ustadhsis
In year 150 the Khurasani troops renounced obedience under the amir Ustadhsis and he seized most of Khurasan; the Khurasani army's levy reached three hundred thousand horse and foot. Ajtham al-Marwazi fought them and was killed and his army plundered; Khazim ibn Khuzayma then took the field in a vast host, and the famous battle they fought is said to have killed seventy thousand. Ustadhsis fled to a mountain; the next year Khazim had the fourteen thousand captives beheaded, besieged him until he surrendered, bound him and released his thirty thousand followers.
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Yazid ibn Asid al-Sulami's Governorship of Armenia
In al-Baladhuri: al-Mansur gave Armenia to Yazid ibn Asid al-Sulami, who opened Bab al-Lan, stationed there a ribat of diwan men, and tamed the Sanariyya till they submitted to kharaj; al-Mansur wrote ordering him to marry into the Khazar king's family — he did so, the Khaqan's daughter bearing him a son who died while she died in her lying-in; Yazid sent to Shirwan's salt-source and salt-pans, taxed them and set a deputy over it; he built the city of Arjil the Lesser and Arjil the Greater, settling Palestine's people in them; and it is told from a body of Bardha'a's shaykhs that al-Shamakhiyya in Shirwan's district was named for al-Shamakh ibn Shuja', who was king of Shirwan in Sa'id ibn Sam al-Bahili's governorship of Armenia.
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Yazid ibn Hatim's March to Ifriqiya and His Killing of Abu Khatim
In al-Baladhuri: after Hazarmard, Yazid ibn Hatim ibn Qubaysa ibn al-Muhallab governed — he went out in fifty thousand, Abu Ja'far al-Mansur escorting him to Bayt al-Maqdis and spending great wealth on him; Yazid marched until he met Abu Khatim at Batr Iblis, killed him, and entered Ifriqiya which settled for him; then Rawh ibn Hatim ruled, then al-Fadl ibn Rawh — the army rose on him and slaughtered him.